Almost Easy
by Silver Tear from Black Whisper
Summary: Sonic and the gang have met a new group that rivals them in many ways. When Eggman comes to mess things up, things start getting out of hand. It's my first fanfiction; critique and reviews are welcome, flames aren't.
1. Meeting Up

****

((I don't claim the Sonic characters. They belong to Sega, and all these other companies. And if I did claim them... well... I probably wouldn't be making this! I do claim Whisper, Dawn, Hawk, Death, and Rush from this chapter.))

An ear-splitting scream alerted the red echidna standing beside the Master Emerald

An ear-splitting scream alerted the red echidna standing beside the Master Emerald. His eyes widened to see Tails in the Tornado crash-landing.

_No... that couldn't happen!_

Missiles, or something along the lines of that, were flying towards the red plane. Knuckles took a few steps backwards, beginning to feel... worried, to a small degree.

_What the heck...? What's with Tails... no matter. Hopefully... Sonic noticed, I hope. I might as well warn him._

* * *

"No way!" Sonic spat as he saw his friend in the Tornado.

_What the heck is going on here?!_ He asked himself, dashing off to help Tails.

* * *

_Gotta stay calm... stay calm... what should I do?_

The orange two-tailed fox, attempting to stay calm, contemplated with how to get out of this mess.

_What did I do for this to happen? Oh well. It doesn't matter now... now, just how do I get out of this without killing myself?_

With no other _real_ option, he decided to jump out of the plane. Maybe it wasn't the brightest decision... but... whatever.

* * *

"Hm?" A female hedgehog that resembled Shadow, except with dark blue high-lights mumbled. Her amber eyes glanced up at a red plane, now pilot-less. She looked confused.

_What the..._

"Hey, Dawn!" She called out, beckoning a three-tailed fox to her.

Dawn looked up, her three tails swishing around in different directions. Her dark-red fur flattened, and her green eyes just stared at Whisper blankly.

"What?" She asked simply, walking towards the black and dark-blue hedgehog.

Whisper pointed to the red air-plane with no pilot.

"Look over there," She replied, "Doesn't that seem a bit... eh... odd?"

Dawn only nodded, obviously watching it.

"I see a two tailed fox. Falling," She turned to Whisper, "Gather up the others and go?"

Whisper's pupils narrowed, annoyed, and said, "That's my say, not yours, Dawn. But yeah."

She swung her head to look at Hawk, a brown feathered eagle with amber eyes, Death, a gray echidna with amber eyes, and Rush, another hedgehog that resembled Shadow, except with brown fur and black highlights and green eyes.

"C'mon, guys. This better be good."

* * *

"Huh! Shadow, Rouge!" Sonic yelled, "What're you doing here?"

Shadow glanced to Sonic with cold eyes. His red eyes quickly silenced Sonic.

_I could ask you the same._

"Stop," Rouge said, "What exactly are _you_ doing here?"

Sonic smirked.

"For possibly the same reasons you are?" He shot back.

"Hmph! It's about that fox cub, Tails, isn't it?" Shadow asked, catching Sonic off-guard.

"Wha-" Sonic asked, "So what if I am?"

"Hmph."

* * *

Whisper skidded to a stop, with the others behind her. In front of them was the plane...

"So surely the pilot is around here somewhere," Dawn pointed out, interrupting Whisper's thoughts.

Whisper was about to snap at the three-tailed fox, but then Death pitched in.

"Or otherwise he or she is dead, and so thusly, they don't matter anymore."

Whisper rolled her eyes.

"No wonder your parents called you Death. You're literally obsessed with it!" She muttered.

Rush sighed.

"C'mon guys, less bickering, more searching. In other words, shut up and start looking for the pilot."

Hawk nodded and flew off.

* * *

"Silver? You're... here?" Knuckles asked, his purple eyes glancing at the silvery-white hedgehog in front of him. Silver, or at least... the supposed Silver, stared back at the red echidna. He looked confused for a second.

"You're... Knuckles? Friend of who I thought was the Iblis Trigger, Sonic?" He asked.

_So it is him! But... what's he doing here? And how does he still remember?_ Slightly shocked, Knuckles nodded.

"I found that one fox, Tails, I think was his name... he's unconscious..."

"Thanks," Knuckles replied, and without another word, he left. Silver ran after him.

"Knuckles... Silver is with you?" Sonic asked Knuckles. He looked at the familiar silver hedgehog.

"Sonic, I found Tails," Silver said quietly, "He's knocked out cold."

"You did? So he's unconscious... where is he?"

"If you want to find him... then follow me."

"Tails? You alright?" Sonic asked, gently shaking the orange fox. Tails opened his eyes and looked at him.

"Y-yeah..." Tails replied.

"Don't tell me you were working on another prototype."

"I wasn't, actually. I was... shot down, so to say."

"Shot down?" A new voice asked.

Shadow looked past Sonic to see five others; two hedgehogs that resembled him, two echidnas that looked like Knuckles, a bird that slightly resembled Jet, and a fox.

"Who're you?" Knuckles asked, staring down the gray echidna with amber eyes.

"Whisper. Whisper the Hedgehog, and this is Rush. Rush the Hedgehog."

Rouge couldn't help but snicker. Those names sounded so out of place.

Death stared back at Knuckles.

"I'm Death."

Tails overheard this, and almost went into a laughing fit. Death, the echidna?! That was just absurd!

"I'm Dawn," Dawn said, "And Rush is Whisper's brother. The brown eagle is Hawk. And...?"

_Looks like we got competition!_ Sonic thought, smirking.

"Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Whisper looked at him, returning the smirk.

"I'm Tails," The orange fox looked over at Rouge, who was busy annoying Hawk, "That bat over there-"

Knuckles interrupted Tails.

"That's bat-girl, but her real name is Rouge. I'm Knuckles," He said, still staring at Death with angry eyes.

"I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog," The black and red hedgehog said blankly, and Silver looked at Dawn.

"I'm Silver."

**((Heh, sorry for the crappy ending.))**


	2. Discovering the Emeralds

**((I still don't own the Sonic Characters from Sega in this fanfiction. I _do _own, however, Whisper, Tarla, Rush, and the other characters that pop up. And mind you, there are only 10 characters that are mine, I think! The other ten of the twenty characters belong to Sega.))**

"And remind me why you are here again, Silver?" Sonic asked as he, Silver, Shadow, Whisper, Tarla, and Rush were randomly wandering.

Silver shot the blue hedgehog a slight glare before Whisper came into the argument.

"Aww, isn't this cute? Three little hedgehogs at each others throats due to one simple little question..." She said in an obnoxious high-pitched voice, similar to that of a mother baby-talking to her child.

Silver, Sonic, and Shadow all threw a glare at the black and dark-blue hedgehog.

"You're a hedgehog too," Shadow pointed out.

Whisper rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. I'm the only female hedgehog besides Amy, and she isn't here."

"Hey, how in the world do you know about that annoying little -"

"Cool it, Sonic!" Rush interrupted, reaching out for his shoulder. Sonic moved out of the way before Rush could successfully grab him. He let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

Tarla, a female echidna that was gray and ice blue, watched the five hedgehogs bicker, with amusement and concern in her eyes. She smirked.

"At least I'm of the oddity," She pointed out, "I'm the only echidna here right now."

No one paid any attention to what she said. Sonic was losing it with Whisper and Rush getting him riled up, and Silver with Shadow trying to stop the three from mauling each other to death or something of the like. Tarla stared at their futile attempts to stop the trio from killing each other, and started laughing uncontrollably. It didn't sound evil... but more like some crazed princess cackling the life out of someone. That made the five hedgehogs stop, especially Whisper and Rush, who in their life-time of knowing Tarla, never heard the female echidna laugh.

"Gotcha!" Tarla shouted, grinning, "I knew that would make you stop!"

Sonic was the first to really recover. He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Okay..."

"What the heck was that for!?" Rush spat, "Sonic and I were just getting -"

"I tried to keep the five of you from mauling each other to death. Surely not even the fastest thing alive has the heart to kill innocents?"

"H-hey! It wasn't that! It was the mention of that determined annoying little pest Amy!"

Tarla rolled her eyes.

"Ah, sheesh. It's only a girl, and girls do... well... girly things. Stalking men is just one of them," She pointed out, "Don't take it out on me if she actually tries to make you marry her."

"Heh," Whisper murmured and turned to Silver, who looked emotionless. In a better sense, dead.

"Hey, hey! Silver!" She whispered to the seemingly dead hedgehog. He looked at her.

"Hm?" He asked.

"C'mon."

Tarla saw that Whisper and Silver were walking away. She smiled, and glanced over to Rush, Sonic, and Shadow.

_Well, that's two taken care of..._

* * *

"What is it?" Silver asked Whisper. They were running along the side of a cliff.

"Meh..." Whisper muttered, "You guess."

Right at that moment, she tripped herself, and fell over, unable to catch herself. She began to fall off of the cliff at a great speed, until Silver managed to catch her.

"What do you think you're doing?! Committing suicide!" He spat, "Don't do that. Ever."

Whisper disregarded Silver's concern for her. She smiled.

"That was fun, man!" She shouted, but when she tried to stand up, she collapsed into an ugly heap. Silver rolled his eyes and picked her up, bridal style. He grunted and ran off, though secretly, he was concerned for the stupid teenager's safety.

* * *

"Silver? What is it?" Tarla asked Silver.

"I-it's Whisper," Silver replied, panting, "She fell off a cliff and nearly killed herself."

Tarla raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? How'd she fall off?" She asked, thinking that she knew how Whisper fell off of the cliff."

"You won't believe this, but... she tripped."

"She… tripped. Thought so. She acts a lot like Sonic, but is a klutz, as if you didn't know that already."

"Well... isn't that great to know..."

"Where'd Shadow and Sonic go?" Tarla asked, turning her attention to Rush.

"They're just down the hill. What do you have in mind?" He replied.

"Heading over to Ice's place. We've got some emeralds to look at."

Rush's spikes rose with alarm.

"What?! Y-you mean... those were none other than the Chaos Emeralds we found a few days ago!? No wonder..." He mumbled the rest of the sentence to himself.

_But... what the..._

"C'mon Rush, round Sonic and Shadow up! We're going to Ice's place, remember?"

Silver stared at Whisper, then at Tarla. He took a step back.

_What the... how'd they take possession of some of the Chaos Emeralds...?_


	3. Enter Eggman

"Hey, hey! C'mon, hurry up, Silver!" Whisper yelled as she leapt out of his grip, "C'mon, Sonic, Shadow! Race you to Ice's!"

"Heh, you're in for it!" Sonic shouted, and sped up. Shadow only gave a small smirk and dashed off after him.

"SONIC!" A rather feminine voice called out, "Gotcha!"

"A-Amy...? Oh, shoot!" Sonic cursed, "Gotta go... now!"

Whisper looked over her shoulder to see a pink hedgehog running after them.

_Oh, great StarClan, no, don't..._ She prayed, hoping that the pink hedgehog wouldn't do something to her.

Well... it didn't help. Whisper assumed that the pink hedgehog was Amy, and she was coming right for her.

_Of course... I obviously look like a male because I'm not wearing some form of clothing besides my gloves and shoes... gah, sheesh. And I must look like Sonic... we are in the shadows, thanks to Shadow's not-so-excellent idea._

Whisper realized that pink arms were now around her, and her ears ached. Her whole body was beginning to be racked with pain, and she was struggling to breathe.

"Aha! I knew I was... wait a minute... who are you?" Amy asked.

"I- I'm... W-Whisper, the... ack, hedgehog..." Whisper said in between gasps for breath, "C-could you please... let... me go now...?"

_God, that girl has a grip!_ She thought.

She could barely hear Sonic laughing his head off. Amy still hadn't quite let go of her yet, and she began squirming.

"Oh, right, sorry..." Amy said, letting Whisper go, "So... you're Whisper... oh! And you're with Shadow... Silver too? Well... where's Sonic?"

Whisper dropped to her knees, and her head throbbed. She pointed to the tree Sonic was hiding in.

"He's right over there!" She spat, "Don't hug me again, or otherwise, I _will_ kill you or something."

Shadow and Silver looked at Whisper and nodded approvingly. Sonic smiled, looking at Whisper, and dropped down from the tree.

"H-heya, Amy..." He said nervously as the pink hedgehog ran to him. Sonic took a few steps back and asked, "Wha- what do you want?"

_Aww... hehe, Sonic likes Amy! I guess I've got something to bug him with later,_ Whisper thought with a devilish grin on her face.

Amy smiled innocently.

"Well, I was wondering -"

"If it's a date or something, then, no," Sonic quickly interrupted, and looked at Whisper with the look of desperation.

_Here we go..._

"Uh... look, Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and I... eh... we're just off to commit suicide! Yeah!" Whisper lied enthusiastically. She couldn't help but grin, as she was pleased with her lie. She was close to laughing, and Amy just gave her a 'whatever you say' look. Her shoulders sagged.

"Well, you guys look like as if you're in a hurry. See you around," Amy said, and walked off.

"Booyah!" Whisper yelled once Amy was out of ear-shot, "My idiotic plan worked!"

She was literally rolling around on the ground laughing her head off. Tears were streaming down her face, and her jaws hurt from smiling. Sonic grimaced, knowing the pain, Shadow didn't do anything, and Silver was standing there, dumbfounded.

Once Whisper stood up, she muttered, "Ow... my body hurts again..."

Shadow closed his eyes and looked at the ground.

"Maybe you shouldn't have acted so joyful when you sent Amy away with your fake suicide plan."

Sonic couldn't help but let out a small laugh at how serious Shadow was acting when the suicide plan sounded so farfetched.

Whisper's ears drooped, but she still smiled.

"That's what my stupidity is for; sending people away with my insaneness!"

"Whatever," Silver said, "Weren't we going to that one place...?"

"Oh, right, yeah. Let's get going... Sonic, Shadow, Silver, now I'll race ya! Just follow my directions, and don't run into a building!"

Shadow snickered. Running into a building... did Whisper really think that they were that... stupid? It seemed more like the thing she'd do.

* * *

Shadow happened to get to Whisper directed, and was in front of some sort of a underground lab. Whisper and Sonic tied in second place, as Whisper decided, just to be fair, and Silver was the last.

"Woo!" Whisper exclaimed, "Here we are! Man, that race was longer than I expected."

She opened the door to the lab, with a white and black hedgehog that also looked like Shadow with ice blue eyes to greet Whisper. Shadow noted that she had a robotic muzzle, yet she could still have the regular frowns and grins. She also had a small, metal nose that was black. She has black and white shoes as well.

"Whisper! What are you doing here at this time of day?" The hedgehog asked, yawning, "You came just in time, if you were looking for- hey, who are those guys behind you?"

"The blue hedgehog is Sonic-" Whisper began.

"Sonic?! The legendary hero?"

Sonic smirked and boasted, "The one and only!"

"Ahem. The black and red one is Shadow, and the silver hedgehog is Silver, much to the irony," Whisper finished, and turned to the three males, "Guys, this is Winter, my friend and personal comic relief person. She won't kill you, heck, she won't even hurt people unless if they're getting on her nerves really bad."

Winter beamed as she heard Whisper's description of her. She looked at Whisper, who was now facing her again.

"So, why are you here?"

"I wanted to speak with Ice..."

"Oh, Ice went out to run some errands. Oh yeah... I found this lavender and purple cat with a red jewel on her forehead earlier this morning. She was unconscious. Still is."

Silver's eyes widened.

"That's Blaze, my friend!" He exclaimed, "But... how'd she pass out?"

Winter shrugged.

"Beats me," She said.

"Okay, is Flame still here?"

"Yeah. She's scaring the crap out of me, ever since your last visit. Actually, I don't think Flame's even fallen asleep since last month... not even vaguely."

Shadow murmured something that none of them could make out, and finally Whisper broke the small silence.

"And the last time Flame did that was last year? Oh well. I want to talk with her, then, if Ice isn't around."

"You found the Chaos Emeralds, didn't you?"

"Only one, but... yeah..."

"Hi, Sonic!" A new voice interrupted.

Sonic turned around, recognizing the voice. Whisper turned around, and sighed with relief. It was only the orange two-tailed fox, Tails. She motioned Tails to come towards her and Winter.

"Winter, this is Tails," Whisper introduced the two, "Tails... you already know who she is. Winter."

Tails glanced over to Sonic, who nodded.

"It's okay," Sonic said quietly, coming up to Tails' side with Shadow and Silver.

"C'mon. Come inside if you want; actually, I'd suggest it!" Winter exclaimed, "If you don't want to burn to death, that is."

Whisper rolled her eyes.

"Oh, shut up, Winter. You only say that because you're part robot."

"Not true!" Winter snapped.

"Whatever," Whisper muttered, amused. She hung her arm over Tails and Shadow, and Sonic looked annoyed... no, more like angry. Shadow looked very annoyed, and shoved her arm off before dashing off. Silver was the only one that didn't look upset at all. Tails... well... he was annoyed but hid it.

"So, where's Flame?" Whisper asked Winter.

Winter only smirked.

"You won't _believe_ it, Whisper! But, Flame... she's _actually_ hiding out in _her_ respective part of the lab!"

Whisper didn't look very fazed, just annoyed.

"Okay, thanks," She said, obviously annoyed, "I'll go to the pharmacy afterwards. Oh, and, show Sonic, Tails, Silver, and Shadow around for me, will ya?"

"Yeah, sure! I'll do it right now!" With that, Winter ran off towards the heroes.

"Booyah," Whisper murmured as she dashed off to Flame's 'lab'.

* * *

Whisper knocked on the stone wall before wandering into a dark room.

"Flame?" She asked.

"Mm? Leave me alone, Winter..." a voice muttered. Blazing orange eyes stared at her.

"Actually, it's me, Whisper," Whisper said quietly, "I'm back."

Flame's fire-orange eyes lit up, instead of the dull orange look from earlier.

"Whisper!" She yelled, and wrapped herself around the black and dark-blue hedgehog. Whisper managed to bring her hand over Flame's unusually soft, dark red fur. Flame's eyes had no pupils, just a sclera and an iris. Her ears were weird horn like things that hung over her eyes, giving her the sad yet sinister look, and her tail was longer than normal. Her two long spikes were like Silver's, and she let go of Whisper. She smiled for the first time in... months. She brushed some dust off of her red and white striped gloves.

"Why did you leave?" Flame asked.

Whisper grinned sheepishly and winked.

"I had to go," She replied simply.

Flame's smile turned into the neutral stare.

"So you got a Chaos Emerald..." She said blankly, and her eyes narrowed when she heard Winter's voice.

"...and here is Flame's part of the lab! Dark and dreary, isn't it? That's alright... she's happy with that."

Flame sighed and walked up to the doorway.

"Hi, Winter. Will you please high-tail out of here so I can see if anybody else is here?" She asked, completely oblivious to the three hedgehogs and fox.

"Y-yeah..." Winter said nervously, and backed away.

Flame smirked and threw out an orange gem that resembled a Chaos Emerald, and the emerald was alit, lighting her room. She caught the gem as it fell back into her hands.

Tails was watching her with slight awe. Flame jerked her head to Whisper.

"Ah, right. Come right on in, guys!" Whisper said, motioning her hand, "Flame, the blue hedgehog is Sonic, the first hero. The black and red one is Shadow, and the silver hedgehog is Silver. The orange two-tailed fox is Tails. Guys, this is Flame. Don't get on her nerves or she'll maul you to death. And I mean it."

* * *

Whisper walked down the stone hall. Running would've been better, but she felt like taking her time today. She passed by a doorway with red paint around it. She back-tracked, turned on the light, and saw a lavender she-cat laying on the ground. Winter wasn't kidding when she said that Blaze, which Whisper assumed was this cat, was knocked out. Blaze almost looked dead or something.

_At least she's alright..._

She smiled and turned the light off. She began to run once she was out of the room, before something like an earth-quake ensued.

"Ha! Eggman's back here again?!" She heard Sonic yell.

"Eggman..." Whisper groaned. She still had unfinished business with him. She heard Silver and the others also saying something about Eggman, and she brought her hand to her forehead slowly. She was starting to get a little light-headed from this quake.

"So, how'd you know I was here, Eggman?"

Whisper skidded into the room and clamped her hand on Sonic's mouth, immediately making him shut up.

She leaned over and muttered in his ear, "Shut up."

"I'm going to try destroy the world again, with you out of the way!" Eggman announced, his voice going through the ground, so the group could hear him, "I'd like to see you try to beat me this time, Sonic!"

Whisper's eyes narrowed, and Flame just smirked.

"If a fight's what he wants, then I guess that's what he gets!" Flame murmured.

_Yeah, but... how're we going to solve this?_


	4. Questions and Searchings

**((You know the drill. I don't own the Sega characters.))**

Chapter 4

Whisper bit her lower lip as Sonic quickly agreed to take on the challenge. She knew that, yeah, she'd try to stop him... but... Eggman was literally inviting him to try to stop him.

"Sonic... you really think this is a good idea...?" She murmured once she knew Eggman was gone.

"Yeah! It's as good as any other plan!" He exclaimed.

"Guys... what in the world was Eggman doing here?" Dawn asked, peering into the room.

"Eggman's inviting us to stop his plans of conquering the world yet again," Sonic replied.

"Invited... us?" She replied, not believing him, "Have you gone mad? Because I think you have."

Dawn screeched when she felt a gloved hand touch her shoulder. She jumped and whipped around in mid-air, and ended up falling on the ground with no grace at all. The usually brave fighter was panting, but she calmed down once she noticed that the person who had touched her was Winter. Her eyelids drooped over her eyes in mock disappointment, and Dawn began to stroke one of her three tails nervously.

"He hasn't gone mad," Winter said, glancing over at Sonic, and then focused back on the twelve year old fox, "It's true. Eggman just... popped over here, ruined the lab by causing an earthquake, and then invited Sonic and his gang to stop him from achieving world conquest."

She kneeled down on her knees and ruffled Dawn's three bangs on her fore-head with an affectionate smile.

"Hey, I know you guys are friends or something, but... c'mon, seriously, guys," Flame interrupted, "We've got an evil fat egg on our hands."

Whisper smirked, trying to suppress her laughter.

_Heh, evil fat egg... oh yeah! Speaking of making fun of people..._

Flame looked at Whisper, her face carrying the same neutral, bored yet annoyed look. The alien hedgehog sighed.

"What did I say wrong this time, Whisper?" She asked.

"N-nothing," Whisper stammered, mentally kicking herself for showing that she was about to laugh, "Nothing at all."

Flame rolled her eyes and mouthed, "Right..."

"Sorry guys! I saw Eggman's Egg Carrier and... oh… you guys already know... eh..." Whisper turned her head to see a white fox with ice blue eyes and one tail. Beside her was Tails, and Whisper assumed that they already knew each other. The female fox laughed nervously, though it was pretty obvious that it was fake. The female was not amused. Whisper looked away, biting her lower lip for the second time.

"No, no, it's fine, Ice. I wasn't aware of it until just a few minutes ago," Whisper said, trying to calm the white vixen, "And luckily, I've gotta surprise for you that you'll like."

Ice looked uncertain, and she glanced over at Tails, who shrugged. The vixen raised an eyebrow, still not sure what this surprise was. But if it was Whisper who found it... then it probably wasn't good.

Whisper pulled out a white Chaos Emerald out from somewhere with a slight smirk. Though more than anything, she looked a bit... Ice couldn't place her finger on the expression Whisper had on her face. Sorrow? Regret? Ice shook her head.

_The more time I take trying to figure it out, the more time we're wasting,_ She thought bitterly, _But... a Chaos Emerald?_

"Thought so," Whisper said to herself, "I did something wrong again, didn't I?"

Tails threw Whisper a confused yet surprised stare.

"Where the heck did you find the Emerald?" He asked.

Whisper looked up at him. She rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Well... eh... the truth is... I don't know," She said, not wanting to tell how she really got it. She fought the urge to sigh in relief when no one had asked her about it.

After that was a rather long period of silence and staring at other people in the small and nearly over-crowded room. Nervously, Whisper tossed the glowing white Chaos Emerald from one hand to the other nervously, waiting for someone, preferably Sonic, to speak.

"So you mean you stumbled upon it?" A brown bat with a white ring around her neck asked as she dropped to the ground.

When Whisper only nodded, the unusually... beautiful bat continued on, "Well, that's rather awkward."

The brown bat's eyes were green, and her wings were a vibrant orange. Her legs had black streaks, and her gloves had a black cuff, and they were brown and white striped. Her boots, however, were unbearable to look at. They were an extremely bright orange and yellow, which made Whisper wince at anytime she had to even glance at them.

Whisper brought her glove to her mouth and cleared her throat. She kept herself from glaring at the flirtatious boy-stealer, as Whisper liked to call her, and stood up, instead of sitting on the ground. She snorted.

"Well, if you would like to know, Flare, at least I'm finding other crap instead of men," She shot back with a daring grin, "And I doubt that_ you'd_ actually enjoy meeting _my_ fangs, here."

Before the mentioning of Whisper's fangs, Flare had looked equally cocky and ready to beat up Whisper. Once the black and dark-blue hedgehog had mentioned her fangs, Flare took a step back, possibly in fear. No one was quite sure.

Flame tapped on the stone wall.

"Yo, guys..." She muttered, "We gonna go now or what?"

"Come again?" Ice replied, catching what Flame had muttered, "_Excuse_ me, Flame, but unlike Sonic and the others, we have no idea what exactly these Chaos Emeralds can do. We don't even know if-"

"Ice, can it," Whisper interrupted abruptly, her voice getting on the edge of being thoroughly annoyed, "They don't need to know everything."

Right at that moment, Sonic glanced up at Whisper.

"Don't need to know what?" He asked.

_Aw, shoot! I blew it again!_ Whisper cursed, and then replied, this time truthfully, "How little we know of the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic smirked.

"Now, that's a question for Shads!" He exclaimed, and then looked around, rolling his eyes, "When we_ find_ him, anyways. Probably hanging out with Rouge and Omega is my guess."

Flame sighed, becoming more annoyed with every word that was spoken. Bringing her hand over her ear, she prepared the other hand to punch the wall. Tapping her foot on the ground impatiently, she frowned. It took a great amount of effort to not glare at Sonic as she began to speak.

"And any idea where they are?" She asked, trying to keep her cool. The alien hedgehog didn't notice that someone had grabbed her shoulder, until her shoulder felt extremely cold, like metal... and that someone was breathing on her.

Without glancing over her shoulder to look at the person touching her, Flame snapped, "Winter, leave me alone. You aren't helping the situation."

"Oh, um... sorry to intrude... eh... bye and hope everything turns out alright!" Winter replied hurriedly and dashed off.

Staring back at Sonic instead of the wall, Flame repeated, "Any idea where this Rouge and Omega may be, so we can find Shadow?"

* * *

"Gotcha!" Whisper yelled, grabbing Flame's fire gem that Flame been so kind to light as soon as they were going in the darker tunnels of the underground lab and peeking into Flame's lab room. She started to giggle madly, yet she somehow managed to beckon the others to come forward. Inside Flame's 'room', so to say, was Shadow, Rouge, and Omega... just as Sonic had guessed.

Flame walked down in a calmer manner, and simply pushed past Whisper.

"Shut it, Whisper," She said, "We aren't here to ridicule."

"Whatever," Whisper muttered, rolling her eyes.

Shadow looked up at Flame.

"So... what is it?"


	5. Learning and Practice Fighting

**((Let's just leave it at this for the disclaimer. I don't claim any Sega characters, so don't bug me about it. Oh, and one note: I'm purely making up most of this stuff, so most of it is probably not accurate.))**

Chapter 5

"The Chaos Emeralds," Flame began, determined to not let Whisper ruin the whole point, "You know a lot about them, being created by Gerald and all, right? I mean, they _were_ being researched at the time you were being… developed, so I suspect the professor told you something about them, not to mention that you're doing all this crazy Chaos crap, you know?"

Shadow nodded, and though it was only vaguely, Flame noticed this.

"Yes, though only certain people can tap into the energies of the Chaos abilities. Guardians of the Master Emerald, or sometimes just echidnas in general, are usually the only people that can do that, but sometimes there are others that also can use the Chaos abilities. Sonic or Silver, for one and as you can see, are not echidnas or some sort of life-form that was created with the blood of the Black Arms aliens infused into them," Sonic grimaced as Shadow mentioned that, "So for in that case, they just happen to be able to do so."

"And don't forget, the Chaos Emeralds, each of them, have unlimited power!" Tails inserted rather excitedly.

Flame nodded, trying to make several mental notes with all of the information. She looked down at the ground and sighed before looking back up.

"Yeah… it's also possible to do Chaos Control and possibly other abilities with fake Chaos Emeralds with… what?" Sonic asked, looking at Tails and continued on, "The same wave-lengths and properties? I don't know."

"Okay…" Flame murmured, "Thanks. So… when you guys go out of super form, do the emeralds scatter to different locations?"

Shadow and Sonic exchanged glances, with Sonic smirking. Shadow just threw a side-glare at Sonic afterwards, and turned his attention to Flame.

"Yes. It's generally inevitable, though none of us know how to keep them from scattering… yet, anyways," Shadow replied.

"This is getting no where…" Flame muttered under her breath before inquiring, "Is it possible for me to Chaos Control?"

Shadow amazingly kept a straight face. Staring at the female alien hedgehog, Whisper tossed the white Chaos Emerald to Shadow, who then threw the emerald to Flame.

"The only way to know is to try, but be careful, at least."

"Care givin' me an explanation?"

Sonic beat Shadow to answering.

"Well, first off, you need to have a Chaos Emerald. Then, just focus your mind on where you want to Chaos Control to, and yell out Chaos Control. After that… generally, you'll get there unless if something screwed up."

"Thanks for that last really nice thought," Flame retorted dryly, and tossed the emerald, catching it. She paused for a second, trying to come up with a place to Chaos Control to. She glanced over to Sonic, her face carrying the unusual mischievous grin. She pictured dark blue in front of her, as well as Sonic's quills… and then she focused her mind and image into the emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

A bright green light flashed behind Sonic, and Flame landed rather… ungracefully on the ground behind the blue hedgehog. She looked up, and smirked.

_Yeah! I did it!_

Feebly, she stood up. Her vision blurred, but quickly cleared again, and as soon as she stood up, her head throbbed with pain. Rubbing her fore-head and somehow managing to not touch her hanging, bang-like ears, she looked up.

"Well? How was it?" She asked.

Shadow just shrugged.

"It was good, for a first try," He admitted, "But you'll have to think faster than that when you find yourself in a battle and you have no other choice _but_ to Chaos Control. I don't really suggest you Chaos Control with no real need in a fight when you're still new to Chaos Controlling. It can take a lot out of you."

_Sheesh, do you realize how much you sound like Sonic?_ Flame thought, her ears lowering over her eyes. Shaking the thought away, she nodded to what Shadow had said.

"So… about the other Chaos abilities…" She continued.

"You're literally _asking_ for a long-winded lecture, aren't you?"

Flame just smirked.

"Yep. If it gives me any helpful information, I'll listen!"

Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"There _aren't_ any Chaos abilities I'm willing to tell you. And don't even bother to beg."

"Okay," Flame replied, "Then could I try to Chaos Control during a battle?"

Shadow was almost surprised at how she wasn't begging anyways. She almost literally ignored what he said.

"Did you listen to anything I just said within the past few minutes?" Shadow asked, hoping that Flame would give up with that idea until at least tomorrow or something. Or perhaps a few hours, at the least.

"Uh huh. Did it have anything to do with I shouldn't Chaos Control in battle because it'll take a lot out of me, since I just now realized I can Chaos Control?" She said, becoming a bit irritated, but was determined to not show it… for now, anyway.

"Then why are you disregarding the fact that you shouldn't try that until later?"

"I'm just stubborn and lose my patience easily. Can we try now?"

"No, because you're stupid enough to disregard the fact. Maybe later… like in a few hours."

"I'll remember it later, Shad, but right now I don't feel like following rules to powers, especially Chaos abilities. I can deal with passing out. So… please?"

"Okay, fine. If you want a practice fight, then you'll get one. Just don't say I didn't warn you."

Flame was quick to start the battle. Sonic was certain that she had wanted to fight for a while. Somehow or another, she shot out fire at the black hedgehog, who dodged it like as if it were nothing. Shadow threw what Sonic liked to call a Tornado Kick, which Flame was unable to avoid, since she was recovering from using her fire upon her own accord instead of her instinct's. So, the female was tripped, and Sonic took a step back.

This was going to be interesting. A fire user versus someone who could run fast _and_ was strong. Sonic took another step back, this time his back to the wall.

Flame smirked and prepared to throw another string of fire or something involving fire at Shadow, and barely hit him. The black and crimson hedgehog slightly winced, and jumped up into the air, and initiated a Homing Attack. Although Flame was still hit, she _had _countered the attack, putting up a fire shield. It weakened her greatly, with how much she was using her fire, as well as hurt Shadow again, because… well… the reason was pretty obvious. Though, within seconds, Flame was cornered by Shadow. She bit her lower lip.

_Think, you idiot, think! I have no chance of using fire here… um… yeah! Got it!_

Flame, in a rather sloppy attempt, managed to shove Shadow off, and slipped out of his grasp, taking the upper hand.

Or rather, what would've been the upper hand if she weren't so fatigued from the alarming amount of fire she had used, anyway. If she had used too much… no. She wouldn't think about it. She didn't need to harass herself further with the thoughts. She groaned inwardly.

Flame could tell that Shadow wasn't even breaking a sweat, and she knew that if this were a real battle, this would've been the perfect time to kill her right then and there while he still had the chance. But she knew that he wouldn't do that. With a fake smirk, Flame made her glove on fire, which somehow didn't harm her, and punched Shadow dead-on. She gulped nervously when she realized that he was now bleeding, and she felt queasy; actually, she felt like vomiting. She shook her head. Flame couldn't let her weakness over-take her this time. However, Shadow cornered her again mysteriously.

Sinking to the floor, unable to really fight, and she knew what Shadow was looking for.

Chaos Control was the end of the battle in this case.

She pictured to be beside Sonic for who knows why, and yelled out, wincing in pain as Shadow had either punched or kicked her, "Chaos Control!"

Shadow smirked as she fell to beside Sonic, who had been watching.

The first thing she did, since this time she was standing, was groaned, "Ugh… sorry, Shadow…"

"What for?" Both Shadow and Sonic asked at almost the same time, though Sonic sounded a bit more sympathetic. Or something like that, anyways. Flame couldn't tell.

"It's nothing…" She replied, still feeling queasy from seeing the injury she had put on Shadow.

"Oh, you mean that, huh?" Shadow inquired, shrugging, "It's nothing."

"Yeah," Sonic added, backing up Shadow and explaining to Flame, "You haven't seen your best friend killed, and then fall to Earth when somebody tried to save you years later. And believe me, I nearly got killed in a capsule with a bomb. I was only lucky that I still had that fake Chaos Emerald Tails made."

Tails smiled sheepishly when Sonic mentioned that.

"I'm going to get on Eggman's ship. I need to know what the hell is going on around here," Flame said, "In a few hours."

* * *

"You said you wanted to go find out. Do you want to go, still?" Shadow asked.

Flame nodded, her grip firm on the Chaos Emerald.

"Then don't tell Whisper. She'll kill you, I'll bet."

Flame nodded again, and focused her mind on Eggman. Suddenly, she pictured his Egg Carrier… and after that, the doctor's grotesque figure.

"Chaos Control!"


	6. Lost and Found, or something like that

****

((I don't claim any characters by Sega, so don't bug me about it. Hm… that has a nice ring to it! Anyways, enjoy!))

Chapter 6

Flame landed somewhere on the Egg Carrier, and she knew that she wasn't anywhere _near_ Eggman. Becoming a bit irate because she wanted to kill Eggman immediately, she looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

The floor was strangely, a brown color. The walls were off-white, and in front of her were bars. Balling her hand into a fist, she punched the wall.

_I don't _have_ psychokinesis! I'm in a freaking jail cell where the only one who has authority to let me out is some robot made by Eggman, or Eggman himself!_

Then, scanning the large mechanical button-like thing, as Flame was going to call it since she had no knowledge of mechanical objects; it appeared to Flame that she could apply some force to it if she reached out past the largely spaced bars. It also occurred to her that she could just slip right out of the bars, with her being unusually thin. But pressing the button and seeing if she could apply some force appealed to her more. Glancing around, she pushed her arm out of the bars and onto the metal button. When she pushed on it, nothing happened. Curling her lip, she just slipped out of the jail cell… or whatever it was.

Flame checked herself, looking for the white Chaos Emerald, and found that it was still there. She sighed in relief.

_Good. I don't have to protract my trip._

Hiding the emerald somewhere, she stood in front of the door, tapping her foot impatiently. Within a few seconds, the door opened, and she dashed into the next room.

Flame didn't take the time to glance around the room and gawk. This time, the room was large, and everything about it was made of metal. The thing that caught her eye was the golden… thing at the top of the stairs. She shook her head with impatience.

_I'm not here to sight-see. I'm here to figure out Egghead's plans._

Turning around sharply on the sole of her shoe, she stopped herself and faced the doors. The one to the far right was the one she had already emerged from… the middle door had the noises of machinery, but no voices, and the far right one was silent. With a smirk, she stood in front of the door to the far right, and it opened. She strode in calmly, glancing around.

Humanoid-looking robots came from both sides of the halls, flooding the area. Determined not to use her Pyrokinesis yet, she kicked some robots away, which inevitably hit other robots, which both groups of robots exploded, creating a chain reaction. Looking smug, Flame grinned. Kicking was certainly helpful in a fix, she had to admit. Trotting on ahead, she looked and listened for anything that looked or sounded even remotely like Eggman. The robots were a huge hint that he had to be near-by and watching her.

* * *

Throwing herself against the wall, Flame groaned. After an hour or more of wandering the halls of the Egg Carrier, she hadn't found Eggman. Biting her lower-lip, she sunk to the floor and stared up at the ceiling, her eyes closed. She felt tenuously… safe. As soon as the thought hit her, she became confused as to why she had just felt that safe, and she sighed again. Tapping the floor with her gloved fingers, she slowly stood up. She smirked again.

"It all makes sense," She murmured, "All I gotta do is head to that one place…"

* * *

Backtracking where you had walked hours ago turned out to be harder than she had thought. Flame was just glad she even found her way back, though she supposed she could've Chaos Controlled instead. But, following Shadow's advice, it couldn't be helped. Cracking her knuckles involuntarily, she climbed up the stairs and wandered around the gold platform. The technology about it didn't appear too hard, so she clambered onto the platform and began operating it.

Within a few seconds, she was up on top of the Egg Carrier. Tossing the emerald, pleased with the slow progress she had made, as all of a sudden she decided this was becoming fun; she caught the emerald in her hand and stepped out of the platform. She ran towards a door in some tower like thing, and found herself in a room with a tunnel leading upwards. She strode forward until she could look up and see the ceiling in the room above.

Reluctantly peeling off her gloves, revealing rather bony hands with talons on the end, Flame leapt up and caught her hands onto the metal tunnel. Pain shot down her back, but she resisted the urge to let go. With a grunt and some muttering, she slowly made her way up into the next room. She froze when she saw the round body of Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik.

_Crap, I'm going to die. I am so going to die._ She thought dreadfully.

Taking a few bold steps forward, she said, "Heya, Eggman."

When there was no reply, she looked at him and saw that it was a fake. Angrily, she punched the controls, making it go haywire.

_Oh crap, now I truly am going to die! Grab the plans, grab the gloves, and get the hell out of here._

She saw pieces of paper in front of her with inscriptions about the plans, and grabbed them, poking holes into them. Jumping down the tunnel, she put down the plans, and put on her gloves. As she grabbed the Chaos Emerald to Chaos Control, something snatched it out of her hands. When she turned around, she saw an android.

No, a robot. Metal Sonic.

Grabbing the plans, she waited for the metal hedgehog to strike, but he didn't. Instead, he fled. Positively livid, Flame hit her forehead. Clenching her fists, angry that she had lost the Chaos Emerald, she went off in full pursuit.

* * *

Flame had no choice but to give up the chase. She was not as fast as Metal Sonic, and would never hope to be. But she didn't want to give up. She wanted to follow him; or rather, it.

_Maybe I should just go jump off of the ship and hope I can find my way back._

As soon as that thought shot through her head, Flame narrowed her irises.

_Wait… why the heck am I considering what might be my death? Aw, screw it._

Turning around, she decided to get that black Chao egg she had found on the ship.

* * *

Flame came running out of the ship, in her arms a black Chao egg. She was smirked, proud of her work of destroying the ship. She made the engines malfunction and… her train of thought was quickly interrupted by an explosion.

"Woo hoo!" She called out as she leapt off of the exploding Egg Carrier.

_Oh… shoot…_ Flame thought nervously, _I gotta die. Now._

* * *

"Where is she?" Whisper muttered, "Surely it doesn't take that long to find plans!"

"Calm down, Whisper," Dawn whispered, "Getting angry or worried won't do anything."

"Oh? She left at… like, five or six hours ago, and now it's what? Around midnight?"

Dawn nodded.

"Yeah. Midnight."

"Do you think that… she lost the Chaos Emerald?"

The dark red fox with three tails bit her lower lip.

"I think it's inevitable," Ice said, coming around the corner.

"So… where do you think she is?"

Ice closed her eyes, trying to get rid of her current head-ache.

"I don't have a clue, Whisper. We'll just hope she gets back in one piece."

"She's my friend! I can understand how you don't know where Flame is, but all you can do is hope that she comes back okay?!" Whisper yelled angrily, "We should try and look for her! We could be trying to help her out as much as we can, but no, we're sitting here on our lazy bums! Why? Because we're praying that she's okay to this god that might not even exist! Why, you may ask, am I being such a pessimist? Because we are all being idiots by sitting here hoping she'll come back alright and not dead!"

The black and dark blue hedgehog's breathing was becoming extremely uneven, and she was finding it hard to breathe as well. Her arms were shaking, and her legs trembling. Whisper felt like as if she were about to collapse.

Dawn and Ice both stared at her with equally scared eyes. Ice slowly turned around, and ran away, and with her being as fragile as she was, began to sob elsewhere. Possibly in her lab, so she could play on her laptop. Dawn, however, kept her cool and took a step forward. She was close to glaring at the one she idolized, the one who kept the group together with hope.

_Was_ it false hope, after all?

Dawn shook her head. Something was wrong with Whisper. She didn't want to find out, either. Taking a deep breath, she managed to give Whisper her most sympathetic look. She put a brown and white gloved hand on the black hedgehog's shoulder, making them both fall to the floor.

"Look, I know Flame is your friend, and I know you care for her like your sister. But there are times where… sometimes, they have to care for themselves. You don't even know if she wants help, Whisper."

At that, Whisper rolled her eyes, extremely embarrassed that a _twelve_ year old was talking sense into her.

"Yeah, and maybe you'd like to explain why you've never had a friend before?" Whisper shot back, still feeling upset.

However, she didn't get a reaction from the violent fox.

"But there really is nothing we can do. We don't have a Chaos Emerald. That's why we wait for her. If we set out, then we might miss her, and probably won't see her after that. And besides, she might actually be having fun, being alone," Dawn continued on, "But I assure you of one thing; Flame is definitely alright. If she wasn't, you'd know it. It's a friend instinct. You tend to know what the other is feeling."

Whisper stared at the ground, feeling guilty. She nodded, and stood up. Dawn didn't quite know why, but she guessed that the group leader was finally getting it. Over-reacting didn't do much, if at all. She smiled, and with nothing else to do, decided to follow Whisper.

Looking back into Flame's lab-room, Dawn thought, _Just, please be alright, Flame._

* * *

"Okay… so… where am I, anyways?" Flame murmured to herself, looking around. Trees surrounded her, and now she knew that she should forbade herself from using her fire. She didn't want to start a forest-fire, that was for sure. All of a sudden, her arms felt numb. At first she wondered why, and then…

_Oh yeah, I'm carrying around a Chao egg. Who knew those were freaking heavy?_

Putting down the egg for a moment, Flame stretched her arms, feeling a bit comfortable. She picked up the egg and began to dash off in hopes of finding some other Chaos Emerald.

It had to be _way_ before dawn. At least seven hours, at that. Flame slowed down her pace, catching her breath. Her wrists felt unusually warm, and she smiled.

She was close to a Chaos Emerald. Actually, no, extremely close.

Glancing around, unable to see since it was completely dark, with the canopy so thick with leaves, she thought she saw a yellow glow. Her ears pricked, she strode towards the light. Her eyes wide, she grasped the yellow object on the ground. A Chaos Emerald… again.

Flame already knew where she was headed, and she knew well what it looked like. Gripping the plan papers and the Chao egg, she took a deep breath. She didn't want anything to screw up, not now.

"Chaos Control!"


	7. Infiltration And Some Conversation

((Here's Chapter 7 because Chapter 6 sucked

**((Here's Chapter 7 because Chapter 6 sucked! Heh, anyways… I don't own any characters from Sega.))**

Chapter 7

Flame dropped to her knees as she appeared back into Whisper's base. Slowly standing back up, she dragged herself to the main room of the base, where Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Whisper, Ice, Dawn, and Death waited. She lay down on the ground, and pushed the Chaos Emerald and the sheets of paper in the middle of the group. She crossed her arms in front of her and laid her chin on her arms.

Whisper looked at Flame, asking for the pyrokinetic hedgehog to speak, but when she didn't, the black and dark blue hedgehog shrugged.

"Hm... Eggman's at the destroying the world to conquer it again, huh?" Ice mused, "The same trick won't work twice... right?"

"Let me see that!" Death exclaimed, grabbing the papers and scanning them. Then he glanced over to the Yellow Chaos Emerald.

"Where's the white Chaos Emerald?" He asked.

Flame frowned and murmured, "I dropped it."

"What did you say?"

"I dropped it, okay?" Flame asked, feeling a bit guilty, "Metal Sonic snatched it."

"And so that very well means that Eggman has one or more Chaos Emeralds," Shadow pointed out.

"Looks like we'll have to be careful!" Dawn joked.

"Metal Sonic, huh?" Sonic mumbled, "Then this will be more trouble than it's worth."

"Hm?" Blaze asked.

"If Metal Sonic's involved, then this will be more trouble than it's worth."

"Darn it!" Flame hissed, slamming her fist onto the ground, "Then that means he's also here to throw us off so he can snatch the emeralds and incapacitate us while he's at it!"

Whisper shook her head.

"Flame… I thought we discussed this not punching the ground or whatever when you're angry…"

"Whatever. Like Sonic said, this is going to be more trouble than we really need."

"How?" Dawn asked, "It's only a robot. Eggman's robots suck; surely he's not in the right mind of taking all nineteen of us down!"

"No," Sonic replied, "Metal Sonic's different. You see, Eggman built him to be exactly like me - well, you know what I mean. No personality, but still has the freewill going on. He can even exceed my speed, and copy other people. He can even turn into this dragon like thing if he gets enough information. He even over-threw Eggman once."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a min! What did you say?!" Dawn exclaimed, "He over-threw Egghead?!"

"That's what I said!"

Silver stared at the ground and mumbled something under his breath.

Flame repositioned herself and stared at Sonic.

"So he over threw Eggman, huh? Seems kinda odd. But if Metal has this freewill like you said…"

"Oh! So we run in, destroy Metal Sonic, find more out, bash Eggman, and get the heck out of there?" Whisper exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Whisper, it's going to be harder than that," Ice pointed out.

"Whatever. I can still fantasize."

Sonic leaned over to Ice and whispered in the white vixen's ear, "Is she always like that?"

"Yeah. And she's fifteen, too," Ice muttered in his ear.

"Wow."

"So, why do we need the Chaos Emeralds?" Silver asked, "All we _have_ to do is hide them where he won't find them and just hope for the best."

"Hope doesn't exist, idiot. It's what makes Eggman's plans fail in the first place," Whisper replied irritably.

All eyes went on the irate female hedgehog, who blushed and messed with her furry muzzle nervously.

Crossing her arms over her knees, Flame laid her head on her arms again.

"So now that that's over with… how're we going to get to Eggman?" She asked.

"Rather… guys, read this for a sec, okay? This might answer more questions," Ice replied.

Flame skimmed the page, noting the images.

"Metal Overlord…" She mumbled, looking at the caption under a metal dragon like thing, "Guys?"

"I don't get this at all. What are you implying, Flame?" Dawn asked.

"Metal Overlord. Eggman wants him to become… _that…_ again."

"Again?" Sonic and Shadow both asked at the same time. They shot each other glares before turning their attention back to what Flame had said.

"Yeah. That's worse than bringing Chaos back," Dawn injected.

"Chaos nearly killed Eggman… two or three times!" Sonic argued, "Bringing Chaos back would be worse!"

Ice merely raised an eye ridge at that.

"Yeah, how many times did he nearly kill you?"

"…once."

"Thought so."

With that, Ice dashed off, leaving the others to discuss that.

"I think we should find out more before we infiltrate the place," Flame put in after a long moment of silence.

Silver, Blaze, Dawn, and Death nodded in agreement.

"But we shouldn't stall too long," Shadow pointed out, "Knowing too much could get you and others killed."

"I'm with Shads on this one. Surely we don't need to know every single detail?" Sonic asked, backing up Shadow.

Flame shrugged.

"What's wrong with knowing too much? It could help us out, you know," She pointed out, using up all of her patience again.

Dawn groaned.

"How about we just infiltrate the place? It'll be easier than bickering over this for hours on end."

Whisper rolled her eyes.

"The point is that we go find out what we need to know, infiltrate fat man's base, beat the crap out of Eggman, destroy Metal Sonic, and go off in our merry ways," She said, "Its simple."

"No, it isn't," Death retorted.

"Huh?" Ice and Silver asked, "How isn't it simple?"

Ice nearly glared at the silver hedgehog.

"You see, what Whisper said is just what we fantasize. This is reality, guys," The gray echidna pointed out, "Reality means its real, which some of you don't get. We must find out more information before attacking Eggman and this Metal Sonic."

Everyone else groaned at that, well, except for perhaps Shadow, who just stared at Death like as if Death was acting like a complete idiot.

After the room was silent, Death asked, "What? It's true."

Sonic and Whisper rolled their eyes. Ice shook her head, Flame just covered her face with her hands, and Dawn muttered, "So what?"

"Let's just go there. We aren't going anywhere with this, guys…" Ice complained.

"Finally," Whisper muttered, and she stood up.

"C'mon, guys! We have to find information!" Death shouted angrily.

Flame, Shadow, Sonic, and Silver glared at him, and the echidna looked away nervously.

The rather large group left Flame and Death in the same room, which was a big mistake.

"What are you thinking, F-Flame?" Death stammered.

Flexing her arms, Flame replied firmly, "What does it look like I'm about to do?"

His nervous face turning into a defiant pout, he murmured, "You're very close to ripping my guts out."

"Exactly, fool," Flame spat coldly, "If you don't back off, I actually will burn you to death. And when you're dead, I will spread your entrails from here to the otherside of the world, assuming your guts are long enough."

"Y-you're sick, F-Flame," Death whimpered, "I-I don't m-m-mean any h-harm…"

Cracking her knuckles, Flame retorted, "Very well. I'll let you off this time. But watch your tongue."

Death nodded and dashed up the stairs, screaming and sobbing and scaring the crap out of everybody. Satisfied with her work, Flame walked calmly up the stairs, receiving a few suspicious glances from everyone around. Oblivious to everyone, Flame walked toward the study room where the Chaos Emerald should be.

"Everybody, just touch each other. Now," Ice ordered, "It's not like as if we're sick or whatever."

Flame glanced from the two males beside her. Death was to her right and Sonic to her left. It took everything for her to not breakdown because of how annoying both of them could be.

_But I didn't threaten Sonic's life._

"Just hand over the emerald, Ice," Flame said, "I'll Chaos Control us there."

When Ice faltered, Shadow spat, "Just do it."

"O-okay…" Ice tossed the Chaos Emerald, which Flame caught with ease.

"Chaos Control!"

"Oomph!" Flame grunted as the uncomfortably large group landed. It was completely dark.

"Flame?" Whisper asked.

"Yeah?" Flame replied, and accidentally hit somebody in the process and murmured, "Sorry."

The group scattered away from each other.

"Use those gems, will ya?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Flame muttered, and whipped out a red gem. Lighting it on fire, she twirled it between her fingers.

"Better?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. Let's split up into two groups…" Flame announced, lighting another gem and tossing it to Tarla, "Whisper, Ice, Dawn, Death, Flare, Winter, Sonic, Tails, Silver - You're going with me. Rush, Hawk, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Blaze, Amy, E-123 Omega - You're going with Tarla."

The split group glanced at each other, and then stared at Flame. Not willing to argue with the fierce hedgehog, they nodded.

"Okay, then!" Flame replied to herself, "Let's go!"

Motioning to the other nine sapiens, Flame trudged off with the others quickly following, leaving Tarla and her group alone.

"Uh… I guess we go the other way…" Tarla murmured, and then she said louder, "Let's go."

"Okay, so where the heck are we again?" Whisper asked as she nearly tripped herself as Sonic nudged her impatiently. Throwing a glare at the hedgehog and the kitsune, she looked forward to Flame.

"We're in the Egg Carrier, doofus," Flame replied, "C'mon and hurry up."

"God, it's so narrow," Ice muttered.

Sonic, who had overheard what Ice had said, replied, "Why else do you think Eggman sends out so little robots?"

"No, Sonic…" Flame retorted, "I went in this large room in here. Robots were swarming around there."

"How'd _you_ take them out?"

"I kicked the first row and they all blew up. It was pretty sweet."

"…okay, then. Moving on…"

"Tails? Ice?"

The two foxes looked at each other before looking at Flame.

"Yeah?" They asked.

"We got a problem."

"Okay, Flame, we know that much," Ice replied, "What is it?"

"Password? Hacking? Got a hint?"

"The door."

Tails and Ice strode past the others until they got to Flame. In front of her was something that needed a password. Tails rolled his eyes while Ice walked past him.

"What's the hold-up?" Whisper yelled.

Ice glared at her friend.

"Nothing," She lied, and quickly put in the password 'MARIA'. It worked, and the door swung open, revealing robots.

"Yo, Sonic!" Flame yelled, "Get over here!"

Before the alien hedgehog could even finish her sentence, the blue hedgehog was already taking care of the robots, taking them out. Flame just lashed out at the metal scraps with her fire, making them blow up and getting an angry Sonic.

"What was that for?!" He spat as he strode towards Flame.

"I just wanted to use my power for the heck of it, Sonic," Flame retorted with a shrug.

Sonic glared at her and walked over to Tails, who was with Ice.

The dark red hedgehog held up her hand.

"Shut up!" She hissed, "Someone's coming."

Silver's pupils widened. Someone was indeed coming, and he and Whisper shoved everyone back into the narrow hallway they were just in seconds before. Flame heard someone whisper, "What the hell is going on?" and assumed it was Dawn, as she was known for her foul language when shoved. Swiping a hand over her hanging ear, Flame's oddly shaped eyes stared ahead. She froze when she realized that it was none other than Eggman. Then she realized that beside him was… a clone of herself.

She took a step back and muttered, "Shoot."

Turning around, she ran into the hallway.

"Guys, we need to hide. Now. There's an android that looks like me outside."

"And how is that something to worry about?" Dawn retorted.

"You mean you haven't seen me use my firepower against a living being?" Flame asked, rolling her eyes, "This is like a Metal Sonic here, but instead it's a Metal Flame."

Ice glanced behind Flame.

"How about we split into two teams - five on five - and we simply go around them?" She suggested.

"Might as well," She muttered, "Dawn, Ice, Sonic, Death, come with me. Whisper, Flare, Winter, Tails, Silver, well, just follow Tails. Now, come on, let's go before we seriously get killed."

The group split up into the two groups and flooded out of the hallway. It was fairly easy to go past, like Ice had suggested. Getting into another hallway, Ice gasped.

Whisper glanced at her, noticing this.

"Ice, what's the matter?" She asked.

"The central control room! We're here!" Ice exclaimed.

"Okay, then…" Flame murmured, "Ice, you choose someone to go with you."

"Why don't you?" Ice shot back.

"Well… don't you sense something…?"

"No, besides your want of control. So, fine. Death."

Death swung his head to stare at Ice.

"What?!" He nearly shouted, "But- but why would you-"

"Just do it, Death," Flame snapped, "Unless if you want me to enact my threat for you. And I doubt you'd want to die just yet…"

Death nodded, his eyes widened, and he quickly followed the already running Ice.


	8. Traitor

Ice punched in a few words, only to find that there were several articles on Eggman's plans

Ice punched in a few words, only to find that there were several articles on Eggman's plans. It was easy to hack into the database... but all of the articles were password protected. Biting her lip, she made random guesses at it. As soon as she typed in the stupidest password she could think of, which just happened to be 'one', it allowed her to look at the first article.

"Death!" She yelled, looking over her shoulder, "Death? Where are you?"

She turned around, and saw no sign of the gray and black echidna.

"Oh, sheesh... this is written in some foreign language, and I'm guessing only Death could read it... agh, why did he have to high-tail back to the group at a time like this?!" Ice spat as she turned around to destroy all evidence that she even tried to find out the doctor's plans. She muttered a few words before wandering out of the room and into the narrow hall.

She didn't know how she and Death wandered through here without getting crushed by the narrow walls. Ice wanted to run and find Whisper, Hawk, Death, Flare, and Flame, as well as Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, and Omega, but she felt sick.

What if Sonic and the gang were already captured by Eggman?

Putting her hand on the cold, steel wall, she felt like as if she were the only one here. She knew she wasn't... there was Eggman, but that didn't make her feel any better, and then there was Whisper and the gang, but they too might have been captured, but Flame was a powerful entity in herself; she wouldn't allow Eggman to take the group hostage. Ice decided she wouldn't be surprised if Flame were some sort of a goddess or something with how powerful she was; she matched Knuckles' strength, and Sonic's speed... even if she was using fire to help her. But Flame lacked in stamina.

Flame. Ice thought about the alien, and she stopped. She was like Shadow; a being of unknown origins and past. She rarely spoke, and was always serious... heck, Flame was almost exactly like Shadow, except she was willing to protect people with or without a promise involved. It didn't matter to her.

_Now, if only I could help her..._

She smirked, and ran down the hall again. Maybe there was a way to help Flame after all... Ice shook her head.

_It doesn't matter, not right now, anyways. I've gotta find them before something bad could-_

Suddenly the ground shook, and Ice fell. The lenses from the goggles fell off, and Ice cursed, "Shoot!"

The ground was pitch black now, and Ice was unable to see. Sweeping her hand over the ground, she grabbed the lenses and ran like heck, her mind now set on finding the group before they got killed. The scent of smoke hit her nose, and she groaned; bomb-smoke… and coming right behind her. She broke down into a coughing fit, but decided to run before anything else happened.

"Ice? Ice! Oh, no..." Whisper murmured, and then she yelled, "Ice!"

Hawk had found Ice on the floor of the hallway, passed out, and he had Death and Flare come with him, but Flame only came along because Ice was hurt and needed help. Ice's body felt cold, like as if she were dead, but she was still breathing.

Whisper couldn't see anybody, not even Sonic, who just happened to be around. Apparently, Knuckles, Shadow, Silver, and Death were captured by Eggman, while Blaze, E-123 Omega, Flare, and Hawk ran off after them. The others... well... it seemed to her that they had disappeared into thin air. Sonic was going to help them, but Flame ordered Sonic to stay here, as she thought he wasn't well enough to go after them.

Ice looked up, opening her eyes.

"W-Whisper...?" She mumbled, "Where are you?"

Whisper smiled and whispered, "Just a second, Ice."

She looked over her shoulder.

"Hey, Sonic! Didn't you say you had a Chaos Emerald?"

There was nothing. Whisper groaned.

"Flame?"

"Hm?"

"Could use a little help here..."

"Just a sec."

There were sparks of fire, and Whisper noticed that Flame suddenly had a weird object in her hands that she couldn't identify. A fire gem? Knowing Flame, it probably was, but it was still weird knowing that they might have some spiritual being hanging around with them. Then there was a small flame, and with that, Flame tossed it over to Whisper, who caught it. She expected it to be molten by now, but it was still cool to the touch; another marvel of the demi-goddess's powers. Whisper smirked when she saw Sonic glaring at Flame, and she turned her attention to Ice.

Ice was now sitting up, and was working busily on the goggles again. Ice was muttering something about a bomb and smoke, as well as ways to put the lenses back in. Whisper could understand Sonic's impatience with all of this, and wanted to get moving. She stood up, tossing the fire gem from one hand to the other repeatedly.

"C'mon, guys..." Whisper said to no one in particular, "Let's get going. Blaze, Omega, Flare, and Hawk haven't returned yet."

Sonic looked over to Ice.

"And what'd you find out about Eggman's plans?" He asked, his tone still with the bored edge to it.

Ice shook her head.

"Nothing. If Death was still around when I was looking that up, we'd know a lot more. But no, Death had to be a coward or a traitor and left me. All I know, from the images on the article, is that apparently Eggman is trying to make something that combines all of our powers..." She looked up to see Sonic with a grim look on his face, "That's right. You better be scared. This... thing, whatever it is, could kill us all. It takes the form of a dragon, from the image... but it has a mind of its own, so who knows? It might actually kill Eggman and save our problem of trying to stop him! Could kill us anyway... but Whisper's right. We gotta go, now, if we want to see our friends again."

"Great. So now we have to face of both Metal Sonic and this new robot," Sonic spat.

Whisper sighed.

"How very convenient," She muttered.

"Booyah!" Flame exclaimed, "This is going to be fun, then!"

Ice idly stretched her arms, jerking them in odd ways.

"So are we going to go or what?" She asked.

Sonic didn't reply, but just quickly stood up. Ice took that as a yes.

"Whisper? Flame?"

"Fine, fine…"

"Let's go."

Flame glared at Ice and dashed off, with Sonic and Whisper quickly following. Ice groaned and quickly followed.

"So if you were Eggman, where would you keep your prisoners?" Ice asked, extremely bored.

"Me?" Whisper replied, "I'd kill 'em right off. What's the point of keeping prisoners?"

"I'd go on ahead and make Sonic save them," Flame smirked, "After all, Eggman's stupid."

"Stupid enough to have an IQ of 300," Sonic shot back, "I wouldn't keep prisoners."

"Meh," Ice said, "I would send my prisoners into a pit of boiling lava and see if they'd live."

"Like they ever would," Flame muttered, "They aren't fire elementals."

"Blaze is!" Sonic shouted.

"Yeah, but she _controls_ fire. She isn't like Chaos, who was a water elemental."

"Chaos was a mutated chao," Ice pointed out, "An extremely mutated chao."

"Yeah, but-" Sonic protested.

"Whatever," Whisper interrupted.

Sonic shot Whisper a side-glare, who simply shrugged. Flame's ears pricked, and she turned around and began walking backwards. Ice stared at her, not sure how the hedgehog was able to do that, but kept on walking. It was silent for a long while, making the kitsune nervous.

"…do you guys hear something?" Ice asked anxiously.

Sonic and Whisper shook her heads, while Flame turned around.

"Not really, no," The dark red female replied.

Ice hung her head and muttered, "I swear I'm having delusions…"

Flame rolled her eyes and shook her head. She wasn't going to admit it, but she felt the same. Cracking her knuckles, she dashed off for a quick second before slowing down, and then she dashed off, with Sonic running after her. Whisper followed as well, but lifted up Ice and joined the chase.

Ice felt queasy from going at such a fast speed, and stared ahead, her eyes blank and with no emotion. Her ears pricked as she thought she heard someone.

_Silver?_

"Stop!" Ice yelled, and accidentally kicked Whisper, who automatically stopped right on the command. She looked a bit frustrated. Sonic and Flame turned around, looking a bit irate.

"Silver!" Ice shouted again, "He's nearby!"

Whisper bit her lower lip, revealing a sharp fang. This was worrying her.

"And if he isn't?" She asked.

"Ugh, how should I know?" Ice shot back, "I just have a feeling about it!"

"Just like Amy who's able to find me anytime," Sonic muttered.

Flame stared at the ground, deep in thought.

"Ice is right. Silver _is_ around here…"

"You guys sure act like as if you have some radar in your head," Whisper shot back, "It's creepy."

"Hey, my wrists grow warm when we're around a Chaos Emerald - or anything we're searching for in particular," Flame retorted, and did a handstand with one hand. She fell over, and rubbed the back of her head.

"Convenient," Whisper muttered.

"Apparently you can't search for yourself," Sonic replied, smirking.

"Wha- hey!" Flame spat, "Of course I can't search for myself, idiot! It wouldn't even take a genius to figure that out!"

"And I just proved that," He retorted.

Ice put her goggles over her eyes and muttered, "Come _on_, guys… we seriously need to get moving."

When no one noticed, she just glanced around, waving her arm back and forth. She felt strangely pulled to the right, and slipped down the hallway. Looking over her shoulder, Ice couldn't see anyone following her, and she attempted to run quietly.

Sadly, it didn't quite work, as she knew Flame would be able to hear her. The sound of her running echoed through the halls and she mentally slapped herself.

_I'm dead after this._

Following her instincts, which were usually very crappy, today they seemed right on track, which surprised Ice. She shuddered as she passed down a myriad of hallways, and then she tapped her eyes. She was still wearing her goggles. With a satisfied nod, Ice looked around the dark room and noted that there was a door. Busting it down with no effort, she climbed over the debris into the next room, where she saw a silver figure and amber eyes.

"Silver?" Ice asked.

He looked up at her.

"Good, it's you," She added a sigh of relief to that, "Come on. We have nothing to lose."


	9. Dude, Don't Wait

**((What? Only 1 review? Heh, that's fine. Not gonna stop me from doing this to the finish. I don't claim the Sega Characters. The End.))**

_Whisper, Flame, and Sonic are going to friggin' _kill_ me as soon as I get back. Maybe all will be forgiven once they see I got Silver back. Or maybe…_

Ice shook her head and gritted her fangs, and continued on running, Silver beside her.

"How in the world did you know I was… there?" the silver hedgehog asked after a long period of silence.

Ice shrugged, which resulted in her nearly tripping.

"Instinct. It was well tuned today," She remarked, and Silver just gave her a confused look.

"You mean…"

"Yes, it has it's on and off days. In other words, it has complete insanity days."

Silver merely raised an eye-ridge.

"…does Sonic have any idea…?" He mumbled to himself, hoping that Ice wouldn't hear, but his ears flattened when Ice had apparently overheard that.

"Huh? Sonic have any idea of what?" Ice replied, turning her head sharply, not realizing that she was about to run into a wall - until Silver grabbed her arm and yanked the one tailed fox towards him. He gave her a hard stare, feeling not in the least embarrassed.

"Nothing," He muttered, and let go of her arm.

"…is something wrong, Silver?" Ice asked, naïve, "You seem a little… not yourself."

"Yes, I'm fine!" Silver snapped.

Ice smirked.

"Just like Blaze…" She mused.

Silver bit back a sharp retort and stared on ahead. Suddenly he felt his shoulder grabbed.

"What the-"

"It's just me," Ice replied, ice blue eyes glittering, "Wait here. Come out when I call you."

"I'll come when I feel like it!"

"Please…"

"No."

"Fine. I guess I will get killed."

"Not literally… right?"

"Not with Flame around. She will if she hears word of this."

"_Sure…_"

"C'mon, please? I friggin' saved your life."

Silver sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Just don't make me appear-"

"I won't, don't worry."

_What the?!_ Silver spat in his mind.

"Who's there?" A gruff yet feminine voice asked.

"Shoot…" Ice muttered, and looked at Silver, "Wait here."

Walking into the room where Sonic had his back turned to Flame, the dark red hedgehog narrowed her pupils.

"You're back," She replied coldly, "Now what happened?"

Sonic turned around, vaguely interested.

When Ice didn't reply, Flame continued, "Why did you leave?"

"I-it… no, I… my instincts… I followed them, I found Silver, I led him back here. C'mon, Flame…"

Flame snorted, and Sonic simply stared at her, not really believing her.

"If he's here, then why isn't he with you?" Sonic challenged.

Ice just smirked and waved her hand, summoning forth a ticked off Silver. He glared at her but said nothing.

Flame smirked.

"Come _on_!" The dark red alien hedgehog complained, "Let's get going before I literally burn us _all_ to a crisp. Not fun. I've done it before."

Ice's pupils narrowed and then she just laughed nervously. Sonic and Silver exchanged confused glances, and tried hiding them the normal way - acting like as if nothing had happened. And without warning, Sonic dashed off in a random direction. Whisper quickly followed him, as well as Flame. After glancing at Silver, Ice and the silver hedgehog were also running after them.

* * *

Once Sonic _had_ finally slowed to a halt, Ice had managed to not fall to her knees like she normally would have after running to keep up with them for a few hours straight. Instead, she just put a hand on the still unnervingly narrow walls and glared at him.

Ignoring her sickening glare, Sonic turned around on his heel, and made it obvious that he was extremely annoyed. After a second of standing, he paced back and forth irritably but said nothing, his emerald green eyes hardening.

Flame looked at the blue hedgehog with sympathy and asked, "Where the hell is Eggman hiding?! I mean…"

"You don't suppose he just got more common sense all of a sudden, do you?" Whisper interrupted, and received a glare from Flame.

"I hope not…" Silver muttered, "Or otherwise, this is going to be _much_ worse."

After an uncomfortably long period of silence, Sonic broke in, "…I think so, Whisp."

"Shoot!" Ice yelled, "Then that means we're in a trap - or really really close to it."

The exclamation was met with many stares or otherwise glares.

"…I'm sure glad we have a pessimist around," Whisper said sarcastically, breaking the second awkward quickly, ignoring Ice and Silver's glares.

"Maybe we should turn back around. Or…" Flame ranted.

"Or what?" Silver asked.

"Anybody got any Chaos Emeralds? I think I could try to Chaos Control there…"

Sonic looked a bit worried at that, and he stopped pacing about.

"…I'm not sure," Ice replied, cutting off Sonic quickly, "I think… I think either you or Robotnik has it, Flame…"

"And if it backfires like it did before? You see, Eggman _must_ be doing this on purpose!"

"Honestly, where _do_ you guys get these horrific ideas?" Whisper asked, "All we need to do is try to Chaos Control. That, or find the other group and get the hell out of here and attempt the sabotage later."

Flame's pupils narrowed.

"Yes, but-"

"But what!?" Whisper yelled, grabbing Flame and jerking her friend until they were face to face, "I say we attempt the sabotage later!"

"…what sabotage, Whisper? You never mentioned anything on that… and besides, we weren't planning on doing sabotage…" Ice injected.

Sonic went back to pacing back and forth impatiently.

"What about the others that somehow got captured? Like Shads and Knuckles?" He asked, "Though it honestly doesn't make sense how _they _got caught."

"And what about Blaze and the others?" Silver asked, "Didn't they just disappear?"

"Yeah…" Whisper and Flame replied in unison, looking vaguely confused.

"How about we just get the others and leave?" Sonic suggested, getting irritated, "If we stay here contemplating much longer, I think we'll meet the same fate they do."

"Yeah!" Ice shouted, and felt that she was maybe even more impatient than the blue hedgehog was.

However, the three contemplating hedgehogs ignored them, and Ice smirked.

"We can ditch them and come back for 'em later, Sonic. They aren't worth the wait," She stated.

Her smirk was met with a careful glance and yet another smirk. Sonic dashed off, making Ice run after him.

**((Agh. Short chapter, I know. I think the next few chapters will be longer, no guarantees, but we're already a fair bit close to done if I decide to not to 20 something chapters. And guys... please comment or do some critics stuff on it. I really want to know what you guys hate and like about it.))**


End file.
